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    Sue Webster: Birth of an Icon

    Next: Wednesday, 4 February 2026

    Runs until Sunday, 10 May 2026 (See all dates)

    Time
    10:00 - 17:00
    Venue
    Firstsite, Colchester, CO1 1JH
    Price
    Free

    Defaced leather jackets, memorabilia, self-portraits, video, and installation – journey through a raw, and personal exploration of art, identity.

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    Marking her first major solo show after a celebrated collaborative career, this landmark exhibition centres on ‘The Crime Scene’, an installation developed since 2019, charting her life from teenager to now. It will be the first time this seminal work has left the studio.

    ‘Seeing my life laid bare before me was like unravelling my brain, only then was I able to see more clearly what needed to happen next as one idea led to another and another in a continuation of the web…’ – Sue Webster

    What to expect
    At the heart of the show is ‘The Crime Scene’, an imposing wall-based installation of teenage memorabilia and personal items pinned together with neon orange string connecting each object to resemble a crime scene.
    This installation also features a new audio piece with the artist guiding listeners through how each element connects, creating an immersive audio collage.
    From this intricate web of ideas emerges a series of artistic journeys, each sparked by the artist’s exploration of her influences. One of these threads looks back to her youth, shaped by the music of Siouxsie and the Banshees, which helped guide Sue through a difficult adolescence.
    This influence has inspired a dynamic body of work, including a memoir, a collection of altered leather jackets, and a striking set of oil self-portraits.
    Also, see eighteen unique leather jackets, hand-painted by Sue, accompanied by a bespoke soundtrack and video footage from a fashion show the artist staged in her studio.
    Sue’s relationship with her son, Spider-Ray, is explored in a new series of self-portraits, ‘Portrait of the Artist as a New Mother’, and in ‘Birth of an Icon’, a shrine including a painting and personal objects relating to his birth.

    About the artist
    Sue Webster is an artist who established her reputation in the mid-1990s, working with her then-partner Tim Noble. Together they rose to prominence, making abstract shadow sculptures assembled from seemingly random objects.
    Sue published the visual biography I Was a Teenage Banshee in 2019. A Künstlerroman (artist’s coming of age novel), the book combines personal memoir with a visual narrative of her evolution as an artist and describes how listening to Siouxsie and the Banshees helped guide her through a troubled adolescence.
    In recent years, Sue has been painting in oils, turning her focus inward to create a striking series of large-scale self-portraits.

    This exhibition is kindly supported by The Coode-Adams Firstsite Trust



    Photo courtesy: Photography by Jill Mead

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    Venue

    Firstsite
    Lewis Gardens, High Street, Colchester, Essex
    Colchester
    CO1 1JH

    More details for this venue

    Dates

    The event runs from 10:00 to 17:00 on the following dates.
    Select a date to add this event to your calendar app.

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